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| The dig site at Beckery Chapel |
About two hundred years later, during an excavation in the 1960s, archaeologists found around 60 bodies in the ruins. Only one was a woman, which supports the claim that this was indeed a monastic cemetery.
To properly date the skeletons, they knew they would have to wait for technology to advance a little more, so the age of the remains was guestimated.
In 2016, the remains were finally carbon dated and they were from medieval times around 406 AD to 544 AD.
Archaeologists had expected the graveyard to be as old as the chapel but further excavation showed that the chapel was far older than the skeletons and much older than the dates that had been in place since the 1880s.
The finding of the monk skeletons made them among the oldest monks in the United Kingdom. The graveyard also showed signs that the monastery was in use for quite some time.
From the 7th to the 9th centuries, the public was allowed to be buried in the cemetery. Then at the end of the 9th century, the Vikings overran Somerset making Beckery Chapel unusable. This explains why there were no more monks after 544 AD.
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